UAE’s Etihad requests to protect Air Berlin codeshare

Etihad holds a 29 percent stake in Air Berlin, and is its biggest shareholder.

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Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has said it applied for an injunction at a court in Germany in order to protect its code-share flights with Air Berlin, the UAE’s daily National reported.

The UAE’s second biggest airliner said the launch of legal action on Friday was also to “help protect the German carrier’s 8,000 employees and to provide passengers with clarity and confidence.”

Etihad holds a 29 percent stake in Air Berlin, and is its biggest shareholder.

“The company couldn’t wait any longer for the German government to make a decision on whether or not to approve Etihad’s codeshare on Air Berlin flights to 29 destinations on which passengers have booked more than 82,000 journeys,” the report quoted an Etihad spokesperson as saying.

The spokesman said the airline was left with no alternative but to file a preemptive injunction with the Administrative Court of Braunschweig.

Earlier on Friday, the German civil aviation authority, the Luftfahrtbundesamt, approved the winter flight schedule by Etihad, but only until Jan. 15 2016, German media reported.